Why Nia's Art Is High Art

Nia's Glitterdick piece is a really amazing piece of high art. In this piece, Nia totally flipped the script on the objectification of womens bodies, and made the male form something to be gawked at. In Glitterdick, a glitter screen was used to project several images of penises while a narration of the process and purpose of the piece played in the background. The piece was inside of a small black room with a black curtain as an entrance. Walking into it was like going into a freak show, being led into a dark room and bearing witness to something that was grotesque but strangely beautiful. Nia's piece was that beautiful freak, that 21 inch midget dancing for your entertainment.
Glitterdick was really great because it took something so prevelent in culture and reveresed it. Nia mastered subversion in one fell swoop. I loved it when I first saw it, and I loved it more after I read about a woman named Sara Baartman. Nia's piece, which made the male glittery penis the freak, strongly alluded to Sara Baartman, an African woman who was showcased as a naked freak in the 1800's.
Sara Baartman lived in South Africa. A South African woman told Sara that if she traveled to Europe, she would make money and become famous. Upon Sara's landing in Europe, she was immediatly exhibited as a freak. Called the Hottenot Veus (Venus referencing the acient fertility figures with exaggerated hips and breasts), she was exhibited naked. Sara had a large buttocks and elongated libia, which excited and fascinated visitors. Patrons were allowed to touch her butt for extra payment. After exhibiting naked for a while, Sara became a prostititue, which is the position she held upon her death at the age of 20 something. Her remains, and by remains I mean brain and vagina, were preserved an exhibited in a French museum until the 1960's.
Nia's Glitterdick was Sara Baartman, and all the other women who have shown their bodies for money, subverted.